Pass the conch
Imagine a world where Desert Island Discs castaways are marooned for real — Stephen Mangan is about to join them
- Bill Borrows
The Island is on Radio 4 on Monday 17 February at 2.45pm. Stephen Mangan's Desert Island Discs interview is available on BBC Sounds. Add it to your collection now
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There’s a naughty rumour circulating about Stephen Mangan. It was probably started by a contemporary envious of the actor’s ubiquity – from The Split and Portrait Artist of the Year on TV to his own show on Classic FM and more voiceover work than seems feasible. Now he’s performed a takeover on Radio 4 with an appearance on Desert Island Discs and the lead in a related comedy series – The Island – within a week of each other. The gossip is that he only agreed to do the latter once a prestigious appearance had been secured on the former. “That’s hilarious if that’s walking around,” he laughs. “And no [that didn’t happen]. I’m not that clever.
“They came in about the same time a year ago,” he says. “And I was delighted to be considered for both.” As the scheduling has played out, the sitcom will come after he talks to Lauren Laverne on 9 February. “There are only two things that I’ve been asked to do that have made me go, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s pretty fantastic.’ One was View from the Boundary on Test Match Special and the other one is Desert Island Discs.
“I chose my eight records and if I don’t come out looking like the hippest cat in the business, I don’t care. I’m 56 and this happens to be the music that relates best to my life.”
Protocol forbids full disclosure, but Mangan’s line-up includes Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees (used in his cult TV comedy Green Wing) and I Recall a Gypsy Woman by Don Williams. Of the latter, he explains: “To me, this is being driven through the Irish countryside after I’d finished serving pop and crisps to 1,500 very drunk Irish people in my Uncle Eamon’s dance hall – dancing, that hint of sex, violence, all very thrilling – and everybody singing along.”
The format of the show lends itself to such revelatory biographical detail and Mangan remembers hearing Johnny Vegas on his episode, somebody he thought he knew well, talking about training to be a priest. “I had no idea. That’s why it’s such a great way to do an interview. There’s nothing to promote and you get to know people.”
It's ruled with a rod of iron by a terrifying Sandi Toksvig
Unfortunately, Vegas and his vaguely ecclesiastical leanings are nowhere to be found in The Island. The Lord of the Flies-inspired comedy is based around the idea that celebrities who’ve been on Desert Island Discs are actually abandoned on an island with each other for company. So, Mangan washes ashore at the start of episode one to find a population of Desert Island Discs castaways, in his words, “ruled with a rod of iron by a terrifying Sandi Toksvig. It’s just a brilliant idea.
“I had an email from Bill Dare, who I’d never met but I knew his name because it’s said in that Tom Baker voice at the end of every Dead Ringers. The whole conceit is just funny from the get-go. There were no scripts at that stage but I said yes immediately. They must have sat down with a list of everyone who’s done it – and you can’t get a more eclectic mix of people – put them on this island and wondered what would happen once their inner demons emerge.”
Mangan reveals that, “Hugh Bonneville has gone slightly loco, taken his top off and is fishing for salmon while, without giving too much away, Richard Madeley is struggling.” An unnecessarily aggressive Delia Smith, Professor Brian Cox and an emollient Tony Robinson – all carrying sharpened sticks – also make brief early appearances alongside lachrymose ex-footballer Ian Wright, but that’s it for spoilers.
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“I wasn’t involved with the writing,” says Mangan, “but it was a joy to do, although I’m not sure it would be that bad in real life. The castaways are an interesting bunch. As for Desert Island Discs, we have three kids and there’s always a lot going on in our house, plus I’m quite busy at work so the idea of enforced solitude is very appealing at this point.”
Authors
Bill Borrows
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